Next PW Winter Retreat: February, 2025
Winter Retreat 2024 brochure download for informational purposes only
PW Winter Retreats will be held at the W. K. Kellogg Manor, a Michigan State University venue near beautiful Hickory Corners MI (pop. 322 per the 2010 census). Hickory Corners is a few miles northeast of Kalamazoo. The conference center is part of MSU’s W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, a facility that your humble webmanager worked on for a few weeks at least 45 years ago or so, when he was but a humble apprentice electrician.
The conference center is primarily the manor house, which we Peninsula Writers will have to ourselves during the course of our long weekend stay, where there are many rooms and lots of comfy nooks and crannies for private writing time, as well as spacious rooms for large and small group meetings. There is a dormitory facility with sleeping quarters in a building nearby, just a short walk away. The dorm rooms available to us are priced by the room at reasonable rates, priced low enough that we each can have a room of our own without the need of sharing, if we so choose. And as with Kettunen Center, all meals will be included in the price of our visit, served in the manor house.
About the PW Winter Retreat
The Winter Retreat is a Writers’ Conference and Retreat for Writers and Educators with the option of one graduate semester credit from Aquinas College. Participants will have time for personal writing, and to share that writing with a small writing group. Debriefing of the writing experience is then discussed with the whole group. Retreat participants also get together for breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and at least one Read-Around, where we’re often joined by a members of a quilting group. Sit in cozy comfort, read, write, nap, have a glass of wine, enjoy good company and a warm fire, and watch the snow fall gently (or otherwise) outside the vast picture windows.
A Short History of the PW Winter Retreat
Long-time PW member and very active member of the Peninsula Writers Board of 
Directors, Cerise, was doing a Wednesday evening thing at Schulers Books and Music in Grand Rapids in the late ’90s. Once she had that system up and running, she looked around and decided PW needed a winter retreat to complement the week-long summer retreats and long-weekend fall retreats at Glen Lake. I’m guessing this was around 1998 or 1999. The venue she found was Khardomah Lodge in Grand 
Haven (do click on the link and read the History). Khardomah started life as a “cottage” around 1873, and became a Lodge in 1926 when 13 bedrooms were added. It’s a marvelous old place, and proudly showed off its age in every odd angle and creak. I once had photos from the first or second year we were there, but those seem to have vanished. These are from later years.
At Khardomah, our long winter weekend was like a big house party–just us Peninsula Writers, unsupervised and running wild. Rooms and bedding were included, heat too, struggling to hold back
the bitter winds howling in off frozen Lake Michigan– and generally finding its way in through leaky windows. Food and drink? Were were on our own, much like at Villa Glen in the summer, providing and cooking our own food, but under one roof instead of several.
After a few years our Peninsula Writers had essentially “aged out,” what with all the steep stairs and tricky floors. In 2011, Cerise found and moved us to Kettunen Center, the comparatively modern and definitely more luxurious 4H retreat just outside of Tustin, near Cadillac. Amenities include motel quality double rooms with two double beds and writing desks, which border public spaces with comfy chairs, tables, a small refrigerator and even a TV. There are meeting rooms, a fitness center, a small library, and a Great Room with a massive fireplace. Three fantastic meals are served every day by the delightful kitchen staff in a large dining room.
Come and join the fun. Sometimes we have live music. See the gallery below.
A few random photos from over the years.
